Pre-modern and Modern Political Philosophy - Essay Example

Pre-Modern period: Locke and Hobbes Locke and Hobbes are representatives of “state of nature” political philosophy. On the one hand, “state of nature” is rather dangerous for the society. There is a lack of security for the society and in spite of the fact that people honor each other and keep their promises and the atmosphere is friendly and pleasant, violent conflicts may occur. Hobbes underlines an obligatory subjection of people to ever existent hazards and violence and no society may exist on the background of unsafe conditions for individual’s existence.

Both, Locke and Hobbes underline that the evolution from the state of nature to the civil society does not disturb human nature. Moreover, they claim that when an individual transits from the nature of state to civil society he is improved for sure. Basically, their views of state of nature were different: for Locke state of nature is a peaceful place and for Hobbes it implies brutality, a place for violence. Therefore, these phlosophers use theoretical tool of “state of nature” in two different ways: for Hobbes, “a common Power” is required for people to provide them with safety conditions for existence and avoid conditions of “Warre” (Hobbes, p. 75). .

Thus, further ideas of Hobbes about a sovereign imply that the latter is the protector of people, the supreme authority. For Locke, sovereign power should be in hands of citizens. In other words, position of Hobbes may be interpreted as relevant to the development of the States with authoritarian regime and Locke’s views are relevant to the States with democracies. Modern Period: Hegel and Marx For Hegel, history’s progression is the realization of absolute mind. In spite of the fact that this concise definition of concept of “history” was mainly criticized, it should be viewed as an objectification and abstraction of a more multifaceted definition.

The main critic of Hegel’s history conceptualization was Marx. Hegel’s philosophy was considered by the latter as an “inapplicable” philosophy. Hegel’s valuable idea was about history’s progression as the progression of the Spirit from a state of a lesser to a greater freedom. Of course, materialist philosophy developed by Karl Marx contradicts with Hegel’s historical developments. While contrasting spiritual and materialistic philosophies of Marx and Hegel, it can be seen that the moving force for historical development for Marx is material production, not an individual.

For Hegel, an important motive forces is mind. The main goal of the State for Hegel is its serving for the needs of people and protection of the private property. For him, the government represents the highest form of ethical life or, in other words, it regulates and corrects internal conflicts of the civil society. For Marx, the civil society is the “base” for mutual co-existence of productive